'Best Pizza' at Roaring 40s Café: Lisa tests her taste buds in the Barossa Valley region of South Australia
Most large country towns have a pizza bar but not all can lay claim to being the best. Unless, of course you live in Angaston - in here they produce not only the best pizza in the Barossa but in all of Australia.
The Roaring 40s Café is in the historic old Laucke Flour Mill in the main street of Angaston. The fading sign on the galvo wall harks back to the days when the local farmers brought their bags of wheat in by horse and cart. The old grinding wheel guards the front door and inside there's a battered notebook - recording deliveries from a who's who of names synonymous with the Barossa.
Damon de Ruiter is Chef and owner of the Roaring 40s Café and he's clocked up a formidable reputation for producing the best smallgoods pizza in Australia at last year's Dairy Farmers Best of the Best Pizza Awards. His secret weapon is the local Barossa produce so I decided to tag along on one of his shopping expeditions. Our first stop is Schulz the Butchers where he collects some freshly smoked garlic mettwurst, lashkinkin and double smoked bacon.
Damon de Ruiter, Roaring 40s Café: "The smoking gives the meat intense flavours."
The secret of that amazing flavour begins out the back where Schultz the butchers have been stoking their smoke house for 70 years - continuing a Barossa tradition which began with the arrival of the first German settlers to the valley in the 1830s.
Damon de Ruiter, Roaring 40s Café: "This is the authentic age-old way of smoking meat. It takes about four and half days so it's lovely and slow. We have a mallee stump down the bottom, the redgum sawdust which creates the smoke and a little bit of sugar just to keep the sweetness going through the smoke."
Stocked up on freshly smoked bacon and lashkinkin we continue our stroll down Murray Street. The early settlers went through plenty of hard times so it was important to be self-sufficient. They refined the art of preserving food by baking their own bread, pickling and bottling their fruit and, of course making their own cheese - all traditions continued in the Barossa today.
Our next stop is the Barossa Valley Cheese Company. As we've shown you on Postcards previously, the Barossa Valley Cheese Company is the passion of Victoria McClurg. The Cheese Cellar is a showcase for her extensive range… but it's out the back, in the factory were the real work is done. Victoria's award winning goat and cows milk is produced in a very hand-on process - just the way boutique cheese should be made.
With a full basket it's back the Roaring 40s Café kitchen for a lesson in fine pizza making as he whips up a 'Blend' and a 'Smokey' - both made with local Barossa Valley produce.
And like all good 'Barossans' Damon's also turned his hand to winemaking in his spare time and produced his own drop - appropriately named "The Outlaw." A pizza of local produce and a glass of red wine from nearby vineyards - it's all a very Barossa Valley experience. The Roaring 40s Café is at 30 Murray Street, Angaston and it's open daily from 9am til late. If you have any further questions please email info@postcards-sa.com.au
Roaring 40s Café
30 Murray Street
Angaston
Ph 8564 2901Published 31st May 2009
